JPH08251357A - Recorder and facsimile equipment using it - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To record data as one page when the data by one page required a capacity of a page memory or over by allowing a recording section to read image information at a head address of the page memory and to start recording when data are stored fully in the capacity of the page memory and controlling the data to be stored in an idle area through reading. CONSTITUTION: In the separate processing for facsimile data, storage is stopped when the capacity of a page memory 8 is fully occupied, data stored in the page memory 8 are printed out as one page. The separated data are printed out as a succeeding page. When the page memory 8 is fully occupied and the data are not facsimile data, since the data are data from a personal computer or the like, the data are read from a head address of the page memory 8 and printed out, and since idle areas as the result of data read are formed, data decoded by an image data decoding section 6 are transferred to the page memory 8 and written in the memory 8. Then the recording processing is continued and the recording of the page is finished.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine having a laser printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a recording device of a facsimile machine has been used for thermal recording using a roll of thermal paper.
However, the data recorded on the thermal paper will change over time and will change if you touch the liquid of fruits, etc. P.
C. The use of (normal copy paper) has advanced. Since the laser printer uses plain paper, it has recently been used as a printer for a facsimile machine. The laser printer stores one page of data in the page memory,
Printing is performed, and after printing, data for the next page is stored again in the page memory and then printing is performed. The printing speed is constant.

The recording density of a widely used G3 facsimile recording apparatus is 200 DPI × 200 DPI (DPI is the number of dots per inch). Generally, when used as a printer, the recording density is 400 DPI x 4
00DPI is used. Therefore, the capacity of the page memory of the laser printer installed in the facsimile apparatus is smaller than the capacity of the page memory of the printer which records at a recording density of 400 DPI × 400 DPI.

[0004]

Although it is often desired to connect a laser printer mounted on a facsimile machine to a personal computer for use, the page memory of the laser printer for a facsimile machine is a general laser as described above. Since it has a smaller capacity than the page memory for a printer, it cannot be used as a printer for a personal computer. It should be noted that the page memory capacity may be set to a size required by the personal computer, but since it is used as a normal facsimile, a wasteful memory is provided.

Note that an original longer than the specified paper may be sent to the facsimile apparatus. In such a case, reduction processing is performed and the data is stored in a specified size, or divided into two pages. Be seen. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining this division processing. For example, consider a case where a document longer than A4 is transmitted. (A) to (d) represent writing and reading of the page memory, WP indicates a writing point, and RP indicates a reading point. (A) shows a state in which the page memory is full at the time when one page of the original is not written. When the reduction processing is performed at a preset reduction ratio and it fits on one page, many devices perform the reduction processing and output it as one page. In this case, the reduction processing does not fit on one page. And As shown in (a), when the page memory is full, writing is stopped, reading is started, and recording is started. (B) shows a state during reading and recording, (c)
Is the writing point W. P and read-out point R.P. It shows a state in which P matches and recording of one page is completed. Page memory is (c)
When it becomes empty, that is, when the free space for one page is secured, the remaining data of the long original is written from the beginning of the page memory, and recording is started when the writing is completed. As a result, the long original is divided into two pages and printed out.

This division processing can be applied to a facsimile, but cannot be applied to pages of a personal computer having a high recording density. Since a long original of a facsimile is originally a 2-page original if it is a prescribed size, it is sent as a long single page, so it is problematic to divide it into two pages for output. There is no. However, in the case of a personal computer, if one page is originally printed by dividing the page memory when the page memory is full, two pages or three pages will be printed, and correct printing cannot be performed. In particular, if the original data of one page is a figure, it is impossible to know what screen is displayed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a recording apparatus capable of recording one page of data when one page of data has a page memory capacity or more, and this recording apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile device equipped with.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the invention of claim 1, a page memory for temporarily storing image information to be recorded, and a recording section for recording the image information stored in the page memory are provided. A control unit that controls the recording unit to read from the image information at the head address of the page memory to start recording when the capacity of the page memory is full, and to store in the empty area that has been read. .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a receiving unit for receiving a facsimile, an input unit for inputting information from an external device including a personal computer, and a decoding unit for decoding image information from the receiving unit or the input unit. A page memory for temporarily storing the image information from the decoding unit, a recording unit for recording the image information stored in the page memory, and a page memory in the page memory when recording the image information from the receiving unit. When the image information from the input unit is to be recorded after the minutes have been stored and the image information from the input unit is to be recorded, the recording is performed in the page memory, and when the page memory is full, the recording unit stores the page memory. A control unit is provided for controlling the reading from the image information of the head address to start the recording and the storing in the empty area that has been read.

According to a third aspect of the invention, the recording speed of the recording unit is equal to or lower than the decoding speed of the decoding unit.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the capacity of the page memory is approximately twice the capacity for storing one page of facsimile reception data.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, at the time when the page memory is fully written, reading is started from the head address and recording is started. That is, by writing and reading at the same time by advancing the writing amount for one page, the pages are not printed separately when the page memory is full, so that data for one page can be printed on one page.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the recording apparatus according to the first aspect is used as a recording apparatus for a facsimile machine.
Facsimile data from the reception and data having a high recording density such as a personal computer are input to the recording device, decoded, and stored in the page memory. When one page of the facsimile data from the receiving unit is written in the page memory, the writing is stopped and the recording is started, and after the recording, the writing for the next page is performed. The data from the personal computer or the like from the input unit starts to be written in the page memory, and when the page memory is full, the data is read out and also written in the memory after being read out. As a result, it becomes possible to print data of a high-density personal computer or the like with a recording device for facsimile.

In the invention of claim 3, the recording speed of the recording part of the invention of claim 2 is set to be equal to or lower than the decoding speed of the decoding part. By matching the writing speed to the decoding speed and the reading speed to the recording speed, the writing is started one page ahead of the page memory, so that the reading point does not overtake the writing point. As a result, even if the data of one page cannot be stored in the page memory due to the high density of data, it is possible to reliably print on one page.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the capacity of the page memory is increased to about twice the amount required for the facsimile.
When data with a recording density of 400 DPI × 400 DPI is to be recorded, theoretically the capacity of the page memory is required to be 4 times, but in practical use, if the capacity is about 2 times, writing starts 1 page ahead of reading. As a result, the read point does not overtake the write point, and good printing is possible.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration around the recording unit of a facsimile apparatus in this embodiment. The printer I / F control unit 1 controls capturing of image data from the personal computer PC. This image data is data encoded by the same method as in facsimile communication. The line controller 2 controls the input / output of facsimile data from the line. The reading unit 3 reads a document and generates image data.
The changeover switch 4 switches the output of the printer I / F control unit 1 and the line control unit 2. The image information memory unit 5 stores image data from a personal computer PC or a facsimile in an encoded state. The image data decoding unit 6 decodes the encoded image data in the image information memory unit 5 and outputs it. The changeover switch 7 switches between outputs of the reading unit 3 and the image data decoding unit 6. The page memory 8 stores the image data of the reading unit 3 or the image data decoding unit 6 from the changeover switch 7. Page memory control unit and recording control unit 9
Is a page memory 8 for writing, reading and recording section 1
Control the recording of 0. The recording unit 10 prints the image data read from the page memory 8 at a constant speed with a laser printer.

The capacity of the page memory 8 is determined according to the facsimile image data. For example, the size is B4, and the capacity is sufficient to store image data for one page of a "fine" original having a small linear density. In the case of a facsimile, the recording density is 200 DPI × 100 DPI when the linear density is “normal”, but when the linear density is “small”, the density in the direction perpendicular to the main scanning line is 200 DPI, and thus 200 DP
The recording density is I × 200 DPI.

In the case of facsimile communication, the page memory 8
Starts recording after inputting and storing one page of image data from the image data decoding unit 6. In the case of a long original or when data of “fine” having a linear density larger than “small” is received, the page memory 8 is reduced to a preset reduction rate of 80% as described with reference to FIG. If it fits, it is reduced at this reduction ratio of 80% and printed as one page. If the page does not fit on one page even if it is reduced, it is divided into two pages and printed without being reduced.

400 from a personal computer or the like
A case where image data of DPI × 400 DPI is input to the page memory 8 will be described with reference to FIG. Page memory 8
Since the capacity of is smaller than the data for one page to be input,
As shown in (a), even if the storage capacity is full, one page cannot be stored yet. For this reason, when the data becomes full, the data at the beginning is read and recording is started. (B) shows this state. P indicates the state of reading up to that position. After the recording is started, the data is transferred to the read addresses, and the data is written. (C) shows this state. P represents a writing point.

In FIG. 2C, the read point R. P is the writing point W.P. It started one page behind P, but
If the read speed is faster than the write speed to some extent,
Writing point W. P is the read point R.P. P may overtake. Normally, the data from the personal computer is A4 size, and if the capacity of the page memory 8 is B4 size and the linear density is “small”, the W.D. P is R. It is unlikely that P will overtake it. The writing speed to the page memory 8 is determined by the decoding speed of the image data decoding unit 6,
The reading speed is determined by the recording speed. P is the writing point W. You should not overtake P. If the recording speed is equal to or lower than the decoding speed, the writing is preceded by one page, so that overtaking does not occur. Under this condition, overtaking does not occur even if an original having an A4 size page memory 8 can be recorded at a linear density of "normal". Further, if the capacity of the page memory 8 is almost doubled, overtaking will hardly occur.

Next, the operation flow of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The page memory control unit 9 constantly monitors whether there is a space in the page memory 8 (S1). When the space is available, the image data decoding unit 6 reads the encoded image data from the image information memory unit 5 and decodes it. It is converted and transferred to the page memory 8 (S2). When the data for one page is transferred and written in the page memory 8 (S3), the written page is recorded (S4). When the recording of one page is completed, steps S1 to S4 are repeated to print the next page. If the data transfer for one page is not completed in step S3, it is checked whether the page memory 8 is full (S5). If it is not full, writing to the page memory 8 is continued,
If it is full, check whether it is facsimile data (S
6). If the data transfer for one page is not completed even if the page memory 8 is full with the facsimile data, since it is a long original or data having a "small" linear density, the division processing is performed (S7). The division process stops the storage when the page memory 8 is full, and prints the data stored in the page memory 8 as one page (S4). The divided data is printed as the next page. If the data is not the facsimile data in step S6, it is data from a personal computer or the like, so that the data is read from the beginning of the page memory 8 to start printing (S8), and an empty area is read out (S1). ), The decoded data is transferred from the image data decoding unit 6 to the page memory 8 (S2), and writing is performed. The recording process is continued and the recording of the page is finished (S4). In this way, facsimile data and external input from a personal computer or the like can be printed.

[0022]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention, when the data of one page is more than the capacity of the page memory,
By writing the data to the full capacity of the page memory and then reading and writing the data in parallel, it is possible to print one page of data larger than the capacity of the page memory. Even if data of a personal computer or the like having a higher recording density than the facsimile data is input, the page memory has a capacity necessary for facsimile communication, and thus reading and writing can be performed in parallel to print one page. In the case of a facsimile device, it is possible to reliably prevent the reading of the page memory from overtaking the writing unless the recording speed is set higher than the decoding speed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for writing and reading page memory in parallel.

FIG. 3 is an operation flow chart of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for performing division processing by facsimile communication.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 image information memory unit 6 image data decoding unit 8 page memory 9 page memory control unit and recording control unit 10 recording unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A page memory for temporarily storing image information to be recorded, a recording unit for recording the image information stored in the page memory, and the recording unit stores the page memory when the capacity of the page memory is full. A recording apparatus, comprising: a control unit that controls the reading from the image information of the head address to start recording and the storage in the empty area that has been read. 2. A receiving unit for receiving a facsimile, an input unit for inputting information from an external device including a personal computer, a decoding unit for decoding image information from the receiving unit or the input unit, and a decoding unit from the decoding unit. When a page memory for temporarily storing image information, a recording unit for recording the image information stored in the page memory, and image information from the receiving unit are recorded, after storing one page in the page memory, When the image information from the input unit is to be recorded by the recording unit, the image information at the top address of the page memory is stored in the page memory when the image information from the input unit is stored in the page memory. A facsimile apparatus including a control unit that controls the reading from a recording medium to start recording and the recording to be performed in an empty area. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the recording speed of the recording unit is less than or equal to the decoding speed of the decoding unit. 4. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the capacity of the page memory is approximately twice the capacity for storing one page of facsimile reception data.